INQUIRER

Nearly 25 years since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, capital punishment remains an integral part of the administration of justice in America.

Thirty-eight states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, have laws allowing the death penalty, and 712 convicted murderers have been put to death since 1976. On Wednesday, Timothy McVeigh will become the 30th inmate executed this year and the first federal prisoner in 38 years.

But over the last two years, serious questions have arisen about whether the death penalty is administered fairly. That has been largely because wider availability of DNA testing has cleared nearly 100 prisoners convicted of serious crimes nationwide, including about 10 on death row.

Such concerns led Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, to declare a moratorium on executions in his state last year after 13 death-row inmates were exonerated by new evidence. Five were cleared because of DNA tests, according to the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law.